May 27, 2005

London Knights Beat Rimouski To Win The 2005 Memorial Cup

Congratulations to the London Knights who will win the Memorial Cup on Sunday over the Rimouski Oceanic. That's the way the League scripted it from Day 1, and they're not going to let a little thing like "playing the games" interfere with their plan. London has received some generous refereeing in all three of their games, starting with the tournament opener against Rimouski, and finishing with the disaster last night.

The game started off with Hicks calling no penalties at all. London was taking all kinds of liberties on Ottawa, but the ref seemed content to "let the players decide". Then Ottawa got themselves in real trouble - they scored first! That wasn't part of the plan! Hicks put an end to that real quick by loading up on some Ottawa penalties. Once the game was well out of hand (4-1), he could let Ottawa have a few PPs so that it would look even on the scoresheet. Ottawa may not have played very well, but at least give them a fighting chance! It's bad enough having to compete with an opponent, without having to battle the refs as well. Even worse, they kept getting in the way! If you're not going to do your job, get off the ice!

This is the Knights/Crosby show, and the League's not going to let anything get in the way of that. Especially not an unranked team like Ottawa. So you can be sure that the reffing will favour Rimouski on Saturday, and favour London on Sunday.

How is it possible that the only team in this tournament that has NOT been called for diving is London? What a joke. If this is the best I can expect from hockey, maybe I'll just go watch basketball instead. I hear they have a kid named Nash in the NBA who's supposed to be pretty good.